FACTORS INFLUENCING DEVELOPMENT OF POSTOPERATIVE WOUND INFECTION

Abstract

Factors in the development of surgical wound infection have been prospectively studied in 1140 surgical patients treated in our clinic between 1999-2000. Patients were evaluated for age, gender, operation (elective, emergency), hospital stay (preop/postoperative), duration of the operation, diabetes, Apache II score, albumin level, lymphocyte count, malnutrition, malignancy, obesity, total parenteral nutrition, smoking, antibiotic prophylaxis, drains, comorbid disease, wound irrigation, type of anesthesia, day of the operation (weekday, weekend), duration of the operation, season of the year, operation team. Wounds were classified in 4 groups such as clean, clean-contaminated, contaminated and infected. The effects of all above mentioned parameters on wound infection were tested for all patients and each individual wound group by means of logistic regression analysis. In this study, we found out that in clean group of wounds, malnutrition and diabetes; in clean-contaminated group malnutrition, diabetes, emergency operation, and wound irrigation; in contaminated group duration of the operation and postoperative hospital stay; in infected group duration of the operation and Apache II score; and generally in all wounds without being classified, absence of the wound irrigation, diabetes, malnutrition, emergency operation, duration of the operation, TPN, obesity, Apache II score, weekend operations, and comorbid diseases respectively are the factors that play an important role in the development of surgical wound infection.